Golden Time:Volume1 Chapter4

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Golden Time 1: Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Tada Banri is turning into a tuna-fish.

In spite of being awake, he can't seem to get up, his body stretched out on the bed and his eyes open in slits, just like a cat's. He is just like a tuna-fish hauled up to Yaisu... for a half-hour already Banri has been like a tuna-fish.

In the entrance-way, corridor and the kitchen, despite it being early in the morning, the veil of darkness has been torn, as if forgetting the night. In the shadowy corner, sitting on a second-hand stool, I've been watching Banri, the tuna-fish.

Facing the two open windows to the northwest, today's weather looks good again, the morning sunlight shining in gently through the cotton curtains he had purchased at a home-center. But as bright as it is around the window, the light doesn't reach to the middle of the room.

By the time they were deciding on this room, they had stopped hesitating over other possibilities. If the place had been a Japanese-style room facing south, then by this hour even the room's nooks and corners would be brightly lit by the morning sunlight, and it would certainly feel nice. Of course that property was good, I am thinking even now. But the wardrobe was big. That room's closet is too small, and already clothes, pajamas, bags and such are already starting to be scattered here and there.

Wrapped up in an eggshell colored sheet, his face still a little puffy and disheveled, Banri as usual was only just opening his eyes. Banri's body wasn't moving, and the still unhealed scratches and sores over all his body were not to blame. Neither were the new complications with people, nor the hectic life of a student, nor the feelings of getting used to living alone.

Every now and then, Banri searches for me.

It's getting to feel as if by holding on to his dreams he were getting clues, as if he thinks that by not moving, he might catch his quarry unprepared, so with his eyes alone he is searching for me. He is understanding that it is futile, and he is planning to stop, but he searches anyway.

"How does he hope to find me?", as if he could hear me if he tried. But even if he could hear, "What in the world? Why are you searching?", he wouldn't understand. Finding and catching me, would that return me to inside of him? Or perhaps, would he erase me entirely? Even so, that guy would not even understand my so-called existence. Such a thing he just cannot do.

So then, Banri, realizing the impossibility of what he was doing, as usual became dejected. Taking a breath, he closed his eyes once more, as if he were awfully tired, bothered by nothing working, and before long crawled under the sheets once more. However many times he did it, even leaving his parent's home and living alone, Banri still didn't change. Still, here he was.

I knew what Banri was going to do next. After all, haven't I seen this show so many times before? Hiding under the sheets, Banri has after a while fallen asleep again. In the time I've existed, after all, how many times has he fallen into this trap? It's called falling back to sleep. This sleep is strangely powerful, heavy and deep, hitting Banri all at once. Even having set his cell-phone alarm to wake him up, with a required exposition on criminal law that he hadn't even started on, Banri doesn't even twitch.

Getting down from the strangely comfortable stool, I approached the bed. Buried near the pillow was the cell-phone, once more making noise. This time it wasn't the alarm that went off. It was from Linda. Wake up, Banri.

If he were to out and say, "Hello, who is it?", Linda would sure be surprised. ...But no, she wouldn't be particularly surprised, would she? There wasn't anything mysterious about calling Tada Banri, or going out with Banri either, in a normal world was there?

Anyway Banri, wake up quickly. ...In other words, really get up. The noise from the alarm or from the cell-phone is making the lady next door mad, and she's hitting the wall. There it is again, the strangely hard sound is frightening.

Doesn't that hurt her fist?

* * *

"Mr. Two Dimensions! Hey thanks! Heeyy Thaaankkss!"

"Noo proobleeem! Catch yooouuu laaateeer!"

"Toomoorrooww! Aarrouunndd luunnchhtiimmee!"

"Soouunnddss fuun!"

"Oookaaay theenn!"

"Toomoorrooww theenn!"

Giving a big wave, as if somebody were leaving the dock on a ferry, Banri saw off Mr. Two Dimensions, who went ahead at a brisk pace. He could see his back as he was swallowed up in a group of students, like a young girl holding both hands before his chest,

"Mr. Two Dimensions, Satou Takaya-kun... good luck with your job at the tempura shop! No matter what, don’t get yourself burnt...!"

He earnestly wished still more. As it happened, Mr. Two Dimensions' high-school nickname was "Satou Taka". Anyway, according to the guy himself, rather than be called by that name, he preferred Mr. Two Dimensions "forevermore."

Yanagisawa, staring at Banri with an amazed look in his eyes,

"Causing problems even for Mr. Two Dimensions, really, what were you doing?"

He drank down the cloudy green tea he had put into a bottle of black oolong tea. "In other words," his voice continued awfully scratchy, now in scolding mode.

"When I first saw your text message, I thought that was absolutely the strangest thing ever. Really, were you truly in mortal danger? How could you not notice? To begin with, taking along new students who weren't even proper members of the club to a training camp in April, wasn't that a bit strange? And you followed along blindly even so?"

Not even talking back, Banri's shoulders slumped. His honor as the elder, completely fallen. In the past such a problem didn't exist, even in theory.

That nightmare of a Saturday, driving back to Tokyo with the freshmen, Mr. Two Dimensions was unable to contact Banri and Kouko, no matter how much time went by, and wondered if he ought to report it to the police. He finally was able to get connection to Banri's cell-phone, and when he'd managed to explain the situation, "Are you all right!? We're fine~, Kaga-san had left too, we were really scared~!", Mr. Two Dimensions was crying into the phone. "Sorry for leaving you behind", he said again.

Remembering it now, he was truly sorry. Having caused somebody to worry about him, having been apologized to, all of it was inexcusable.

"Enough, really... even I don't understand my foolishness... a feeling like 'help me'. Save me from myself!, so to speak."

"But though there's Banri, there's also Kouko. She is such an airhead!"

While Yanagisawa leisurely went descending the stairs, he gazed longingly at the bit of tea powder stuck to the bottom of the bottle and let out a sigh.

"Did she even understand what kind of dangerous situation she was going through? ...Anyway if she was safe, then I suppose it was OK."

Banri pushed the arch of his foot against a corner of the stairs in order to shamble after Yanagisawa. The hard corner stimulated his still-sluggish feet. Having done so felt good, somehow.

They were engulfed in the hustle and bustle of school building at lunchtime, with people heading to the cafeteria and others heading to meeting places, some coming, some returning, some meeting, some separating. The people coming and going to their destinations made a lot of noise. Owing to the classrooms being on an upper floor, Banri and Yanagisawa, like Mr. Two Dimensions, watched the people coming up from the lobby one floor below.

At a landing of the stairwell, while swinging around a corner by catching the handrail, Yanagisawa looked down at Banri's face.

"In spite of having sent a text-message, 'Don't go, it looks suspicious', there wasn't even a reply. What about that?"

"Somebody extra showed up."

"So, if you hadn't accidentally run into that somebody extra, wouldn't you have been in real trouble?"

Nodding while saying "Yes, you're right", he slipped at the corner trying to do the same thing Yanagisawa had done. Yelping idiotically while dropping his briefcase, he banged his shin against the steps, a direct hit. He saw stars. A group of girls passing close by laughed a little.

"...Hey, what's he doing? Banri's really dumb, isn't he?"

Unable to even answer from the pain, Banri then and there crouched down on the stairs. It's not as if he'd been endowed with the physique, power and will-power of Musashibou Benkei. Even if Banri were your average person, or perhaps some low-life rascal, keeling over and dying from the impact would not have been funny.

"O...www...!"

"That must've hurt. That made quite a bang. Right on the shin, too. Aah, just because I couldn't get ahold of you, was I going to just casually text Kouko!?"

"...To Kaga-san? ...That... well certainly... 'Fuaaaaaa!'...?"

While rubbing his shin to dull the pain, Banri looked up at Yanagisawa as he gathered up Banri's stuff. Yanagisawa shook his good-looking face from side to side.

"No, the surprising thing is that there was no answer. Ever since Saturday I've been completely ignored, in the usual way. Apart from that night, she's not paid any attention to me at all. ...Did she get back safely?"

"For sure, brought back together in the car of that extra one, the older girl."

"You went together to her house? Her parent's home?"

"Well, maybe, what of it? She called, ‘It's over there, this is good enough, thanks for the help!' and got out at the intersection, though."

"Which intersection?"

"Which, I cannot say... or even if it's all right to say."

For now, he bent over and tried to see how things were going with his still hurting shin. When he rolled up the cuff of his bluejeans, his limited vision shook.

Behind Yanagisawa. Stunningly bright, rose-pink with a bold, dark red flower pattern. Silk fluttering lightly, one-piece dress wonderfully frilly. At this point, he had no idea how a person could be so skilled at dressing up stylishly in such gaudy clothing.

He made a small ‘x' sign with his finger to be quiet, warning him "It's Kaga-san, over there!" He sent Mitsuo a private signal, as he was half hidden from Kouko by a fire door.

Emphasizing more than usual her luxuriant hair, a snow white hair-band. Sandals and bag also snow white. Even at a distance clearly beautiful, lips painted deep red, today's Kouko again was perfectly lovely.

Yanagisawa turned his back, not noticing. Kouko, in effusively good humor and spirits, showed her sparkling smile and spun herself around so as to show the hem of her skirt especially for Banri. She looked for all the world like a matador. The other students passing behind her looked with suspicious, even hostile glares at the strangely behaving, gorgeous, perfect Kouko. Banri, however, understood the meaning of Kouko's mysterious behavior. The girl hadn't even replied to the text messages from her beloved Yanagisawa.

Shortly Kouko frowned, troubled by the situation with Yanagisawa, but trying to move on. That scenario would eventually have to result in "Kuoukuoo!" In short, moving on to the stage of "Look here, take me!" Yanagisawa was the bull. The matador, Kouko.

That Yanagisawa's gaze was suddenly directed intensely beyond Banri.

"Chinami!"

Reflexively, Banri also turned around and,

"Ah, it's Yana. What'cha doin'?"

A short girl, like a middle-schooler, was approaching them with a smile.

It was the first time he'd seen her.

Or rather, that voice. It was so cute, Banri found himself smiling automatically. Not in the sense of acting like a fool, of course.

"We had classes down below, and now that it's over we were coming back up. What's Chinami up to, by herself?"

"Yep. Being a good kid, this afternoon I've got nothing going on. I'll be alone at lunch too."

Completely the voice actor, doing roles like young girls chattering, she was what you could call an anime voice person.

She didn't seem to be assembled quite right: looking too young to be a student, with a voice too sweet. It hardly suited her small form. In other words--- her voice wasn't the only cute thing.

For a first meeting with the girl, she was somehow excessively cute. The more you looked at her, the prettier she seemed. While Banri without thinking focused on what he was seeing, yet he wanted Mr. Two Dimensions to see, as he thought these dimensions took cuteness to a new level.

Her visibly long, soft hair was only loosely gathered, and in spite of not wearing makeup her skin seemed to glow. Her looks and small build made her seem a child from some foreign country. Showing a boyish silhouette in worn demins, but matched with a handmade lace-collared blouse, she had some sort of rustic outfitter's day-pack on her back, the which made her delicate form stand out in the crowd.

Whether that was stylish or not as girls go, for the time being, if you looked at it through Banri's eyes as a boy, it was a bit clumsy, or rather, to put it bluntly, primitive, he was thinking, but strangely, it was good. Setting aside whether it suited his taste or not, if there were a hundred guys, ninety-five of them would be trying to get her attention, trying to touch or poke, trying to get a reaction. Wouldn't he be thinking of such things? Of course Banri was amongst the ninety-five.

"Come to think of it, you two haven't ever talked before, right? Banri, this is Chinami. Chinami, this guy is Banri."

"Don't call me that!", unexpectedly speaking in unison, Banri and that kid, exchanging glances with Chinami. With a soft voice Chinami laughed. She smiled with her eyes too, and they turned into lines. She seemed to be smiling innocently, with nothing hidden on the other side of it.

Not saying even a single word, Banri looked back at her smiling face earnestly. And then Yanagisawa was looking at Chinami too. Intent on not missing even an instant, his eyes were chasing after her, not even blinking, watching Chinami's smiling face, like a fairy spontaneously coming out of the deep, thick forest. Even Banri could see what was going on.

This feeling. This Yana fellow. It seemed like---

"Yeah, something an eel brought in, eh? Pleased to meet you. I'm Oka Chinami. Yana and I met at a film research club recruiting party."

---She was just right for him.

"Err, nice to meet you. I'm Tada Banri. Yana-ssan almost certainly has some connection with my previous life. Or rather, Oka,"

"Call me Chinami. Being called 'Oka' makes me sound like I'm an old maid."

"Ah. Then hey Chinami, China... excuse me, but this is a little awkward. I'll call you Chinami then. Chinami, ...excuse me, even this is hard to stop. Eh, Oka..."

Chinami looked at Banri's face, apparently with great curiosity as he spoke stupidly. Her dark eyes were a little bleary from being a natural airhead. It gave the impression of little letters spinning around in the middle of pupils of her eyes. Inside such as little Chinami, around five hundred little heart marks wanted to call out. No no no, come back to earth.

"With Oka, that makes the third person with a two-syllable last name. There's Tada, Oka, and one more person, ...Kaga..."

With that tricky way of mentioning Kouko's name, Banri was casually trying to get a reaction from Yanagisawa. But the expression on his face didn't change. Didn't change, or perhaps because he was too enchanted, staring fixedly at the adorable Chinami, that other things, for example Banri's uninteresting and plain face, weren't even noticed. It appeared that he didn't even hear the name of his inconvenient childhood friend.

Chinami's eyes twinkled from Banri's dumb joke while she nodded at him.

"Wow, is that so? There's Hara, the girl in Film Research too! Counting Mita, the guy from phys-ed, just how many two-syllables are there here? This time, why don't we gather together a few two-syllable people and have a small drinking party? With this unexpected connection, we might have gotten something fun! Then I'll call for Yana too. Hey look, Ya-na, you're two syllables!"

She bumped Yanagisawa's elbow with her own, messing around.

Yanagisawa, looking even happier from that,

"Huh? But I'm five syllables, my real name has five syllables! We're in different classes!"

He bumped her back, his elbow to hers. His knock was stronger.

"Eh, finally, in spite of your saying you would call me, ihyahya! Hold on, hyaa!"

Chinami's last "Hyahahahaha!" went flying away as high pitched laughter. To blame was Yanagisawa, who was attacking her, tickling her sides. While she was laughing loudly "I'm ticklish! Stop it!" and trying to escape him, Yanagisawa was going after Chinami even harder, torturing her.

Kouko didn't even understand what she was seeing.

Or rather, she did. ...She was there, close by.

Remembering the situation, Banri's breathing caught. With what kind of face Kouko was looking at Mitsuo in his shamelessness, he was afraid to check. Was she about to blow up, or was she in shock?

Unthinkingly failing to read the mood in their behavior, she went to separate the happy couple against their will. Forcing her arm between the two with all her strength, she separated them. Quite angry that he was being touched by Miss Chinami, she grabbed Yanagisawa roughly by the side.

"Ya, na, s, sa, n, it's true that your real name has five syllables! Chinami-chan, let's call him that! In a party for two-syllables he's the wrong kind of guy! He's quite the sexual harasser! Please be careful with the brute! Hey!"

"Haha, that's true! Yana-ssan is five syllables! Hey, stop that!"

"That's not my real name! Or rather, hey, ow, hold on, ouch, really, Banri, what are you doing!?"

"Is this what it feels like to have your chest ripped off!?", with the seriously unpleasant feeling of having his body torn apart at the shoulder, right then,

"...U!?"

Banri saw beige-pink claws, gripping like eagle's talons. There was no sound of crunching from Yanagisawa's bones, but there should have been from the force by which he was turned around.

"Mitsuo, what you doing?"

Smiling sweetly--- a beauty, no longer a deadly weapon.

Standing firm in her loveliness, Kouko was smiling like a demon.

Her long eyelashes swayed as she slowly winked. Peeking through her deep red lips could be seen pure white teeth, tinged with blue. Striking a balance as if calculated, her dark brown, shining hair fell over her right shoulder.

"...Have I any relation to you? What are you doing?"

Yanagisawa coldly brushed away Kouko's hand, which was grabbing his shoulder.

Banri was strangely nervous, having watched over the situation of Kouko and Yanagisawa for a while now. Standing so close their feet overlapped, Kouko looked up at Yanagisawa, still smiling elegantly. Yanagisawa's good humor took a nose-dive at once, as he looked down at Kouko scowling.

Perhaps, Kouko should not have made her appearance. It would been better if she had simply played at, "Look what I caught!" So Banri thought. Nonetheless,

"Is there something going on here? What do you have to say for yourself?"

She really ought not to speak that way, like warning a child, as if looking down upon him, her nose in the air. She shouldn't be showing that perfect smile, as if she were enjoying herself, tormenting him. Stop it, Kaga-san... though he was thinking so, the message wasn't getting through to Kouko.

Kouko, still showing a shocked expression, gave one small shake of her head, causing the hair prettily wound about her slender neck to come undone and fall downwards. Folding her arms elegantly, she slowly raised her chin higher. She posed in a way that shifted her weight to one leg. Her frilly skirt fully fluffed out, emphasizing her slender waist, her silhouette was completely that of a queen bee.

"I don't want other women chatting with my lover."

"I am not your lover!"

"'Just chatting, but cheating', how many times have I said that?"

"'I am not your lover!', how many times have I said that?"

"I would like you to stop doing things I hate."

"How you fail to understand what I'm saying."

"Mitsuo says things like that because he doesn't listen. 'I would like you to stop doing things I hate,' I said. It'd be good if he'd obey, too. Because with only that much, everything can be made perfect."

Chinami was still stiff, as if surprised, just watching the strained argument between Kouko and Yanagisawa. Then she quietly turned one eye towards Banri. She whispered to Banri, "What's happening?", but her voice was noticed,

"What in the world?"

The haughty eyes of the queen bee looked impatiently at Chinami.

"What was that?"

"...Eh? That...m, me...?"

"Where did that voice come from?"

"Fr, from my mouth..."

"Mouth! From your mouth! That voice! What in the world!", Kouko as if amazed opened her eyes wide, looking up once to the heavens. And then turning about with her perfect smile,

"Though it doesn’t matter that this mystery person showed up, to take a pass at Mitsuo for the moment. I am not begging, but commanding. Mitsuo isn’t just a lover. We’ll be planning our marriage soon. Understand? Marriage it is, marriage. Ma-rra-i-ge. It is destined. From the start you and I have been set apart from the world. Understood? Do you not understand? Understand! Now! At once! Right here!"

Pointing her finger at her, she approached Chinami.

"Eeh...?", Chinami, truly bewildered, blinked, unable to say anything.

Face to face, the difference in their heights was less than four inches. Richly colored brand-name clothing and sparkling jewelry on her, Kouko with one hand on her hip, her chin raised. And then looking down on the petite Chinami,

"---Hmph. Oka Chinami, eh?"

She looked at her with both eyes, as if examining something smelly a cat left at the side of the road. Unexpectedly, her high-heeled sandals were stepping on the toes of Chinami's boots. Banri too reflexively gulped, seeing she was willing to fight dirty. Certainly the type to put a thumbtack into a rival's toe-shoes. The type to have a pin on their fingertip when giving a handshake.

"I remember that name, for sure. Though I don't know what I've Chinami'd, well, do you like to Chinami? You live on your own? By all means, do as you please."

"...Huh...? Rather, you see, unfortunately my feet..."

"However, somewhere else in world from where we're at. Don't come near us. Don't bother us. Don't come near Mitsuo. Mitsuo is mine. Is that warning enough? Understand that there will be no warning next time."

"Kouko, stop it."

His handsome face freezing like a Noh mask, Yanagisawa stood in front of Kouko, giving Chinami his back as if to shield her.

Kouko, unconcerned, simply brushed Yanagisawa aside, putting herself even closer to Chinami. Bending over Chinami's forehead, her lips so close she could have kissed her, Kouko's fingertip pointed up at Chinami's chin like a gun.

"It's because you attacked. People like you are eliminated in a moment. Because that's the world. ...I will do anything. If you don't like that, then go to the ladies room and shiver, but why don't you leave? Why don't you just go hiberate for fifty years, or better yet a hundred twenty years."

A sweet voice coming from an elegant smile, she was a complete villian.

"Hey, didn't you realize? Isn't it really bad manners to reach out and touch other people?"

"Kouko, shut up."

"Hey, aren't you ashamed?"

"Shut up! Behave yourself!"

Grabbing the chain of Kouko's purse, Yanagisawa pulled on it. Losing her balance on her high-heels, Kouko took a quick step, staggering. Looking up at Yanagisawa's expressionless face, it seemed like for the first time she realized. She was dumbfounded for a moment, but immediately tried to regain her queen-bee expression,

"Go somewhere else."

"...So it is, Mitsuo. Send me a text-message, thanks. What we talked about, OK?"

"That's enough, I'm leaving. Chinami, let's go eat lunch. Banri!"

Called out to, Banri gulped, strangely awkward.

"Well, that, err, I... we have an appointment with that extra upperclassman. ...Kaga-san and I together."

Yanagisawa never even looked towards Kouko. Still as expressionless as ever, he looked at Banri's face for three seconds.

"OK. Then I'll text you when we get back."

He turned his back to them.

"Ah, Yana-ssan!"

Still uncomfortably holding his tongue, he left, walking beside Chinami. He called after that back.

"You have to put water in before you can drink it! And then the tea powder!"

"Calm down!", he thought, "Calm things down a bit!" It had no effect at all. Yanagisawa raised one hand as if tired, turning back to only Banri, answering "later". Parting the stream of students, their backs shortly disappeared.

Banri let out a long breath. While combing up his bangs, he returned to Kouko's side,

"Kaga-san, hold on, say what you like..."

He paused to catch his breath again.

"...However you want to say it, what was all that...!?"

The detested side of Kaga Kouko, the villian, was standing behind him.

He was so scared that sweat was running on his forehead, on his neck, in fact, from all over his body. Trying to understand it all, and now, wham! Looking self-important, her arms folded, perhaps by chance that pose,

"...By chance are you hiding the sweat of your armpits...?"

Kouko didn't answer. As if she hadn't heard anything, she was looking away, her face beautifully composed.

Nonetheless, her whole body strangely bathed in sweat, she stayed put, both hands holding her armpits. Even her face was settling down to a blank expression, deathly pale. Normally she would be brighter, her expression clearing.

"For once, are you feeling guilty...?"

Still unable to open her mouth, she suddenly nodded at Banri's word.

"I mean really, something's already dripping... it looks pretty bad... are you OK?"

Once more, a nod. And then a few words, "Since there is no bread, I want to eat cake," though with a note of sarcasm,

"Perhaps I should go dry myself in the bathroom."

Simply that.

Sure, why not..., Banri nodded. While seeing off Kouko to the girl's bathroom, her arms still folded in a strangely stiff pose, he checked the time on his cell-phone.

"Well..., if you could hurry up... it will shortly be time for our meeting with Linda after all."

Shaking her head quickly as if she were a broken puppet, Kouko disappeared beyond the bathroom door.

That was the last he saw of her figure.

---But that was not at all what he meant. Kouko appeared again after several minutes. She had at last put on the cardigan, and her hair and makeup was perfect. "Sorry I took so long, Tada-kun", even showing a smile, it seemed she had managed to restore her normal, entirely perfect outward appearance. But,

"...Are,"

"Don't go asking 'Are you OK?', because I'm fine."

"...Bu,"

"Don't go saying 'But you see,' because I'm fine."

"...Ka,"

"Don't go saying 'Kaga-san, what are you doing?' Don't go telling me 'Are you an idiot?' Because I understand. I know. I'm foolish. Yes, a big disaster. Yes, yes, yes, I'm guilty. I was hated for that again today. On the way to the disaster I already knew it, but I could not stop, I could not admit defeat, knowing how many years I've been doing he same thing over and over again, something I cannot give up! So it is, because I'm a fool! But having been convicted, there's nothing I can do about it! And I can't turn back the hands of time! ...But sorry about that, let's hurry up. Let's not keep the extra upperclassman waiting."

Not letting Banri get a word in edgewise, with a toss of her hair Kouko walked out.

Since were it possible to say anything like "You're looking good now", then she would probably have to reply "Do you really mean it?"

The sound of her high-heels echoing wasn't as confident as usual. Neither her energy, nor her spirit, not her vitality, nor hardly anything else was sufficient.

* * *

Regarding the rescue of Banri and Kouko after they got into their mess in the mountains, the start of term training camp for the "Japanese Cultural Festival Research Society" was going on in the seminar house. ...The nicknamed extra person. From the Festival Research Society, that extra person was. She said, "There was talk going around the student affairs office right away, you see. 'A strange bogus club was trying to infiltrate the school, scattering pamphlets around, inviting people to join.' "

She was Hayashida the upperclassman.

Hayashida Nana, her nickname Linda. A natural born Japanese. This was the person that first noticed Banri when he called for help.

"You did such a thing for our sakes?"

While walking close behind, in spite of Kouko speaking, Linda was looking over her shoulder, and could be seen smiling and shaking her head. Seeing her that way, Banri was once again surprised at how unexpectedly normal a person she seemed to be. ...Wasn't saying such things rude? But, this Linda before him chatting and the Linda which on the day of the entrance ceremony materialized before him from the Edo era and threw him a kiss, he had a feeling they were the same person.

Just a little shorter than Kouko, with a softer voice, walking briskly with both hands stuffed into her pockets, her attitude was recklessly peaceful, filled with quiet force.

"It wasn't just for you two! It self-defense, sort of."

There was that face. That of a saint.

Because of with her gentle, beatific face, even her long stride, even her casual way of talking, she didn't seem boyish in any way.

"'The Extras', to put it simply, do research into the old and admirable Japanese custom of the Cultural Festival, taking part in those times, leaving a legacy for future generations... though we're doing the typical activities, though you could say our presence is not required."

With every word she said, Linda's colorless lips seemed to wrinkle, pursing tightly.

"Of course, isn't it a little suspicious? I cannot say for sure that festivals and religious beliefs are not completely unrelated. Not that long ago, there was a big religious sort of event around here, and I've heard that for a long time afterwards they kept our club under a close eye, suspicious of us. Given that background, we've tried to present ourselves as a perfectly normal, respectable club whenever we have the chance. We tell everybody, 'We aren't strange, really, and being lumped together with such strangeness is troublesome for us. We would like to cooperate with you fully to expel these suspicious elements.'"

"I see..."

<~~48% Completed~~>

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